Traditional Vegetarian Tapas Recipes of Spain

By Malcolm Coxall

Here we present a collection of 280 Traditional Vegetarian Tapas Recipes of Spain.

Tapas are a unique, ancient and delicious feature of Spanish traditional cuisine. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, ranging from a simple slice of bread and cheese, through hearty hot stews and soups, to elaborate and delicate, exquisitely presented gourmet canapés. Every region of Spain has its own favourites, often based on local products. Despite the preconception that Spanish food is dominated by meat and fish, the reality is that at least half of the traditional tapas recipes in Spain are in fact vegetarian.

The author, Malcolm Coxall, a lifelong vegetarian and lover of Spanish gastronomy, has collected a delicious selection of traditional meatless tapas. As he says: "Just because you don't eat meat or fish, it doesn't mean you have to miss out on Spain's most famous food culture - the tapa. Indeed, the opposite is true; Spain has at least as many vegetarian tapas as there are with meat and fish ingredients. More than 3000 years of multi-cultural evolution in food preparation in Spain has given us one of the world's most inventive and diverse culinary traditions. The Muslim Moors, the Jews, the Christians and the "New World" all brought new radical ideas to agriculture and traditional cooking in Spain. In a country where meat is still often considered something of a luxury, meatless dishes are common. Tapas are no exception to this. So here we present just a tiny sample of the vast array of meatless tapas available in the country. Enjoy!"

For this collection of recipes we have divided the book into the following chapters:

Preface
1. Introduction
1.1 History of the Tapa
1.2 The "Tapas Culture"
1.3 Traditional Ingredients and Techniques
2. The Recipes
2.1 The Recipes - An Introduction
2.2 Tapas, Canapés and Montaditos with Bread and Toast
2.3 Pâtés
2.4 Pickles, Marinades, Jams, and Conserves
2.5 Soups, Creams, Sorbets, Purees, Porras, and Sauces
2.6 Potato Tapas
2.7 Croquette Tapas
2.8 Rice and Pasta Tapas
2.9 Tapas made with Beans, Nuts, Lentils and Chickpeas
2.10 Salad Tapas
2.11 Vegetable Tapas
2.12 Mushroom Tapas
2.13 Tortillas
2.14 Stews and Fricassees
2.15 Empanadas and Pies
2.16 Cheese Tapas
2.17 Sweet Tapas
List of recipes - Spanish names
List of recipes - English names

• Language: English
• Publisher: Malcolm Coxall
• Release date: Aug 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9788494178337

Malcolm Coxall

Malcolm Coxall is a management consultant, systems analyst, organic farmer and author, with more than 30 years experience working for many of the world's largest corporate and institutional organisations, starting in the field of dispute arbitration for the ILO. These experiences have provided him a ringside view of the management methodologies used by medium and large businesses in areas as diverse as banking, oil, defence, telecoms, insurance, manufacturing, mining, food, agriculture, aerospace, textiles, and heavy engineering. Malcolm has published articles on political science, sociology, human design, sustainable agriculture, organic food production, technology in organic farming, biodiversity, forest management, environmental protection and environmental economics. He is active in European environmental politics and was a successful private complainant in the European Court of Justice in several cases of national breaches of European environmental law. He now lives in Southern Spain from where he continues his IT and system consultancy work, writing and managing the family's organic olive farm.

Book preview

Traditional Vegetarian Tapas Recipes of Spain

TRADITIONAL VEGETARIAN TAPAS RECIPES OF SPAIN

Malcolm Coxall

Published by M.Coxall - Cornelio Books

Copyright 2014 Malcolm Coxall

First Published in United Kingdom , Spain , 2014

ISBN: 978-84-941783-3-7

Also av ailable as a Paperback

Table of Contents

---

Preface

1. Introduction

1.1 History of the Tapa

1.2 The Tapa s Culture

1.3 Traditional I ngredients and Techniques

2. The Recipes

2.1 The Recipes - An Introduction

2.2 Tapas , C a n apés and Montaditos with Bread and T oast

2.3 Pâ té s

2.4 Pickles, M arinades, Jams, and Conserves

2.5 Soups, Creams, Sorbets, Purees, Porras, and Sauces

2.6 Potat o T a pas

2.7 Croquette T apas

2.8 Rice and Pasta T apas

2.9 Tapas made with B eans, N uts, Lentils and C hickpeas

2.10 Sala d T apas

2.11 Veg e table T apas

2.12 Mushroom T apas

2.13 T ortillas

2.14 Stews a nd Fricassees

2.15 Empanad a s and Pie s

2.16 Cheese T apas

2.17 Sweet T apas

List of R ecipes - Spanish N ames

List of R ecipes - En g lish N ames

About the A uthor

Preface

---

Why a book about vegetarian tapas?

As a life-long vegetarian and a devotee of Spanish traditional cuisine, it seemed only natural to create a cookery book that focuses on the many parts of Spain 's traditional cuisine which do NOT contain meat or fish. Tapas are an important part of the Spanish culinary tradition and they have pretty much become universally popular, so a book of vegetarian tapas seemed a good way place to define just a few of the many examples of traditional meatless cooking from the Spanish countryside.

To the uninitiated it would seem that Spain is a meat eater's paradise but, in fact, this is a little deceptive. Despite the modern stereotypes of Spanish food, which centre on its use of Ibérico hams, fish dishes, wild-fowl, goat, lamb and rabbit in many of today's menus, the truth of the matter is that many traditional Spanish dishes are meatless for historical, economic and religious reasons.

For this reason I felt that it would be useful to the vegetarian diner to know what meatless tapas could be found in Spain, and useful for the chef wanting to preserve an important part of Spanish culinary tradition that are often forgotten in a world where new-found affluence often means meat with everything.

A short history of food in Spain : In modern times, Spain is considered to be one of the powerhouses of European food production, but it was not always so. Spain has undergone long periods of acute food poverty and experienced many famines resulting from catastrophic harvest failures. Sometimes these failures were man-made, sometimes the result of adverse climatic conditions. The effect of these often violent historical fluctuations in food production and the ancient and colourful multi-cultural history of Spain have created an extremely interesting culinary diversity. The often difficult times in Spanish history have altered the way food is made, preserved and re-used to give rise to what we see today in modern Spain - one of the most distinctive, imaginative, healthy, delicious and least wasteful systems of cookery in Europe .

Why are there so many vegetarian dishes in Spain ? The ability of the Spanish cook to improvise a miracle with limited materials is legendary. Many of the dishes for which the country is so famous now are, in fact, the result of improvisations using whatever materials are to hand. Paella is a classical example. There are literally an infinite number of recipes for this dish - dependent entirely on what is to hand in the kitchen at that moment. Thus, in hard times, when meat or fish were not readily available, many a classic Spanish dish was made entirely without either of them.

Influences on Spanish cuisine: In addition to frequent periods of food poverty, Spain was and is largely a rural country with most urban dwellers still having close connections with the land. This connection greatly alters the perspective of the people towards food, and the love of good, simple, local food is universal in Spain . As the saying goes, the best olive oil is that from your own village.

Underlying many common Spanish recipes are religious practices. After the conquest of Spain by the Christians in the late 15th century until modern times, the population has been largely Catholic. This meant that the majority of the population felt obliged to conform to the many days of abstinence from meat - so-called holy days of obligation - including every Friday of the year. These religious observances were one source of inventiveness in Spanish cuisine - and the absence of meat was seen as a challenge to the cook to produce something equally nourishing and appetizing. Thus, virtually every traditional dish in Spain has some meatless alternative and it is not unusual to ask for something without meat in any restaurant in Spain . Indeed, as a vegetarian, it is quite refreshing that asking for a meatless dish in Spain hardly ever raises an eyebrow and, generally speaking, the chef will do his or her best to oblige. In many respects Spain is far ahead of its European neighbours with regards to meatless alternatives. In general the rule in a Spanish restaurant is Ask and you shall receive.

One of the most profound influences on traditional Spanish food was the Moorish presence in Spain which lasted from the early 8th to the late 15th century. During this time new culinary techniques and ingredients poured into the country as the Arabs brought their favourite dishes, cooking methods, new herbs, spices, new food ingredients and efficiently irrigated agriculture into the kitchens and fields of al- Andalus from as far away as Arabia, India, Persia and East Africa. Indeed, it could be argued with some conviction that the very origins of the tapa derive from the concept of mezze - the popular Middle Eastern habit of serving numerous small and diverse dishes. Mezze is still a very popular way of serving food in many Arabic and North African countries and has its origins in India .

During several centuries in Spain's Moorish renaissance, cooking techniques and ingredients from India were mixed with almonds from Syria, pomegranates from Persia, spices from China, the Far East and Africa and dozens of new and exotic vegetables from across the vast Arabic empires of the early Middle Ages. Moorish techniques still dominate the Spanish kitchen to this day, with their love of mixing sweet and savoury tastes and the frequent use of nuts, dried and fresh fruits to create interesting textures and tastes.

Finally, the last major change to Spanish cuisine happened with Columbus ' discovery of the New World . The colonisation of America opened up another new wave of foods and tastes. Gradually, Spanish cooks and farmers adopted a whole range of exotic vegetables, fruits and spices into the own fields and kitchens and indeed some of the culinary traditions of native America were adapted by cooks back in the Spanish homeland. For example, some say that the humble tortilla, the so-called Spanish omelette, started its career in the kitchens of the indigenous peoples of Central America . The tortilla is now the single most popular tapa dish in Spain . The discovery of America altered the Spanish cuisine profoundly.

Why traditional recipes? One of the purposes of this book was to identify and document traditional vegetarian tapa dishes and to help to preserve and spread these recipes. The modern popularity of tapas carries the risk of causing a decline in the diversity of the tapas being served. A casual stroll through many big Spanish cities will quickly reveal that a handful of well-known tapas tend to dominate the less adventurous tapas bars which have capitalised on the tourists' desire to eat tapas.

Gladly, this is not a universal trend and it is quite easy to escape this tapas tourism and find the real thing tucked down many a back street, generally well patronised by the local population rather than by the less critical tourist. Away from the big cities in the Spanish countryside, the diversity of the Spanish tapas really comes to life, with every village, province and region having its own local favourite dishes often based on local agricultural produce. Tapas creation is also a thriving culinary art, with every village chef constantly experimenting in inventing new tapas. It is truly an open art-form in food.

What is included? Generally speaking, the book includes recipes which are normally prepared without meat or fish. This means that the recipes are not simply tapas minus the meat, but rather original tapa dishes which are not normally made with any meat or fish. We have included recipes using eggs and cheese for those vegetarians that eat eggs or cheese but as you will see, many of the recipes here use neither. The recipes are exclusively Spanish with just a few exceptional tapas that have been adopted as Spanish over the centuries. The recipes use Spanish traditional preparation techniques although we have compromised on suggesting the use of a mechanised blender in some cases. The book includes everything from small, simple tapas to large complex appetisers and makes no distinction between rural and urban recipes. It contains hot and cold tapas, suitable for the snowy winters of Aragón as well as for the torrid summers of Andalucía.

What is not included? Some modern vegetarian recipes often use soy derivatives, such as tofu or other synthetic products as substitutes for meat. We do not include these, because they are simply not traditional Spanish ingredients and we are not searching for meat substitutes in this book. Rather we are documenting traditionally meatless tapas.

Also, there is a tendency amongst some cooks to adopt internationalised ingredients as tapas, such as mini-pizzas or sushi ingredients. This type of processed mongrel ingredient is neither Spanish nor a traditional tapa and we therefore exclude such concoctions in an effort to be completely authentic.

Conclusions: Despite the tendency in the rest of the world to homogenise and simplify our diets, Spain still offers a world of food diversity. The tapas tradition is a superb demonstration of this diversity with an almost limitless range of local recipes.

Here we present just a small cross-section of typical recipes, but without doubt there are many thousands more. We hope you enjoy these selected recipes; whether you prepare them yourself or have them as a tapa in your local bar.

1. Introduction

---

What is a T apa?

A tapa is an aperitif snack which is almost always accompanied by a drink of some kind. Tapas can be hot or cold. They may be extremely simple or very complicated. They may be very tiny and delicate or quite substantial and hearty. Some tapas are based on a slice of bread, but many more are not. They can include soups, pickles, salads, stews, cheeses, pies, fricassees, sorbets and pâtés. Forget any preconceptions you may have about what comprises a tapa. There are no limits.

Tapas may be served at any time of the day with a drink but, in general, eating tapas is something that happens after work in the evening and is often a pre-dinner appetizer, so very often tapas are eaten between 19:00 and 22:00. In some bars in Spain , tapas have evolved into an entire, and quite sophisticated, cuisine. Customers can order many different tapas and combine them to make a full meal.

The primary meaning of tapa is cover or lid, but in Spain the word also became a term for this type of appetizer. The origin of the tapa is uncertain, but there are several theories which we will explore below.

Tapas have different names in different parts of Spain . They are sometimes referred to as pinchos (pintxos in the Basque language) in Asturias, in Navarra, in La Rioja, País Vasco, Cantabria and in some provinces, such as Salamanca, because many of them have a pincho or cocktail stick through them to hold the tapa together. In other parts of Spain the word montadito describes the local traditional tapas. A montadito is something mounted, usually on a slice of bread.

Obviously, many tapas are made with meat or fish. However, there are at least as many which are entirely vegetarian and this large repertoire of vegetarian tapas is the subject of this book. Enjoy!

1.1 History of the tap a

---

There are many stories about how tapas came into existence and it is actually impossible to know exactly how the tradition began. There are some fairly unlikely explanations. The reality is that the practice of eating tapas probably came about because of the long time between lunch and dinner in the Spanish culinary timetable. In the heat of Spanish summers, dinner is often eaten late when the temperature has fallen to a more comfortable level. This can be quite late.

Despite this common-sense explanation, here we are going to explore some of the traditional explanations for the origin of the tapa.

The fruit fly theory: One commonly cited explanation for the tapa is that an item like a slice of bread or small plate would be placed on top of a drink to protect it from fruit flies. There is a widespread theory that at some point in the distant past it became a habit to top this cover with a little snack - a tapa.

Alfonso the Wise (el Sabio): One recurrent theory is that Alfonso the Wise in the 13th century started the tapas tradition when he was king of Castilla. He recovered from an illness by drinking wine with small dishes between meals. After regaining his health, the king ordered that taverns would not be allowed to serve wine to customers, unless it was accompanied by a small snack or tapa. The idea was that it was healthier to eat something whilst drinking wine.

Strong cheese and cheap wine: A rather cynical theory tells us that tapas were invented as a marketing ploy sometime around the 16th century, when tavern owners from Castilla-La Mancha found out that the strong taste and smell of mature cheese could help disguise the smell of bad wine, thus covering it, so they started offering free cheese when serving cheap, low quality wine.

The rowdy sailor theory: One of the more plausible explanations surrounds King Felipe III, who in the 16th century passed a law in an effort to curb rowdy drunken behaviour, particularly among soldiers and sailors. The law stated that when one purchased a drink, the bartender was to place a cover or lid on the cup or glass, containing some small quantity of food as part of the purchase of the beverage. The intention was that the food would slow the effects of the alcohol, and fill the stomach to prevent the client from drinking too much.

The sand theory: One unlikely explanation says that King Alfonso XIII stopped at a tavern in the city of Cádiz in the early 1900s where he ordered a cup of wine. The waiter covered the glass with a slice of cured ham before offering it to the king, to protect the wine from the beach sand. (Cádiz is a very windy place.) The king, after drinking the wine and eating the tapa, ordered another wine with the cover.

The Mediterranean traditions: Mezze and Antipasto : By far the most likely explanation for the existence of the tradition of eating small tapas in the evening originates in the basic reality that people in hot countries tend to eat dinner much later than in cooler Northern climates. Perhaps surprisingly, the highest temperatures in Spain occur around 5 or 6 pm, especially in towns and villages, where buildings are also radiating a lot of the heat that has accumulated during the day. It is not a pleasant time to eat and most people prefer to wait with dinner until the sun has set and it is more comfortable to enjoy a meal with family and friends in the relative freshness of the night. However, this does leave a very long gap without food from lunch at 2pm to dinner between 9pm and midnight. Hence in many Arab, Levantine and Mediterranean countries, various solutions have been found to assuage the hunger.

Antipasto : In Italy the antipasto (meaning before the meal) is the appetizer served before dinner, often comprising many of the same types of dishes used in Spanish tapas. Generally antipasto is eaten at the table and is meant to be a gentle lead-in to a lengthy dinner.

Meze or mezze is a selection of small dishes served (sometimes to accompany alcoholic drinks) as appetizers before a main meal in the Near East and the Balkans. In the Levantine, Caucasian and Balkan cuisines mezze is served at the beginning of all large-scale meals. The word is found in all the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and comes from the Turkish word meze meaning taste, flavour, snack, or relish, borrowed from the Persian word mazze meaning a taste or snack or mazīdan meaning to taste.

Mezze is still very popular in Greece , Cyprus , Iran , Iraq , Jordan , Turkey , Lebanon , Palestinian territories, Jordan and Syria , Romania , Bulgaria , Albania , Serbia , and Bosnia . The same dishes, served without alcoholic drinks, a re called muqabbilat - meaning starters in Arabic.

Many of the dishes served as mezze are also common tapas in Spain and it seems likely that the mezze tradition came to Spain during the Moorish period, from the 8th to the 15th Century CE, in the same way that samosas were introduced to the Muslim Delhi Sultanate by chefs from the Middle East in the 10th century CE at around the same time. This era was one of Spain 's great culinary renaissances.

1.2 The T apas C ulture

---

Officially, there is no tapas culture in Spain . Tapas are simply free snacks to go with a drink, served to guests in bars at the discretion of the bar owner. If you had travelled through Spain in the 1970s you would have found a tapas custom that was completely normal and unexceptional - you order a drink and you get a small tapa on the house. Depending on the region and the season, this might be something as simple as a piece of cheese or as complicated as a bowl of soup or stew.

The concept of charging for tapas was completely unknown in those days. Customers going to a bar or restaurant to eat would generally have a drink before their meal and a tapa was a simple appetizer to accompany the drink. You paid for the drinks and for your meal - not for the tapas.

Sometime in the late 1980s, several things happened in Spain . Firstly EU membership in 1986 brought more affluence to the people and opened up new parts of the interior of the country to tourism. This increased affluence (especially in the cities) also allowed for the vibrant bar and restaurant culture to emerge again after that long, dark period of Franco's fascist regime - a period when only a tiny elite had any kind of disposable income for such frivolities. Suddenly, people started to eat out more again and to socialise outside the home. Spain also collectively began to realise that it had a food culture that was not only excellent in quality but was in fact quite unique. The concept of tapas as a way of eating rather than just as a simple appetizer began.

It wasn't long before bar and restaurant owners saw the commercial opportunities in selling tapas and indeed of having tapas bars dedicated to enjoying this especially Spanish form of food. During the last decade the popularity of tapas has blossomed and has become an international phenomenon, with tapas bars opening in towns and cities across the world.

Meanwhile, back in Spain , urban tapas bars do a very healthy trade with tourists and locals alike. However, at the same time, the tradition of giving a free tapa has grown in popularity again, with bars actively trying to outdo their competitors in the generosity of the tapas they offer their clients. The economic crisis of the last few years has encouraged the re-emergence of free tapas, as restaurants and bars strive to capture market share in an environment where people have less to spend.

So, today, we arrive at a point where many bars offer both the traditional free tapa with each drink and also a menu of alternative tapas to buy. This